The Arrival of Christianity

 

Christianity was brought to the Mackay Country by the Columban missionaries of Iona, and it is thought that the individual concerned may have been Maelrubha.  Maelrubha was born in Ireland in A.D. 642 and came to Iona in about 671.  Some time later he settled at Applecross in Wester Ross, and used this as a base to evangelise the North of Scotland.  According to tradition, his final journey brought him to Durness, where, at Balnakeil, “he erected the first Christian building on a site that has ever since  been a centre for religious worship,” (Thomson) and on to Strathnaver, where he was murdered in 722. 

 

In the Middle Ages, the authorities of the Catholic Church laid down the parish boundaries of Scotland.  Strath Halladale became part of the parish of Reay, most of which was in Caithness, and the rest of the Mackay Country was split between the two large parishes of Durness and Farr.  Each would have had a parish church (probably at Balnakeil and Skail respectively (William Mackay), but in addition, there would have been private chapels endowed by landowners.

 

For example, there was apparently a church in Halladale.  Nothing survives now, other than the place name ‘Kirkton’, but “In 1274 and 1275 it is recorded that the church at ‘Haludal’ or ‘Helwedale’ contributed around 9s 4d towards the expenses of the Crusades.” (Bardgett)

 

In 1560, the Scottish Parliament adopted the Reformation.  There is little evidence that this had much immediate religious impact locally, but Donald Mackay of Farr, later 1st Lord Reay, who succeeded his father Huistean Dhu as clan chief in 1614, was certainly a convinced Protestant, and in 1626 was raising troops to fight on the Protestant side in the 30 Years War on European mainland.